The Fragility of Two
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: Momo has a sneaking suspicion that Todoroki is asexual, and it's not going so well for their relationship.


"So have you and Todoroki..."

Jirou made a motion with her hands, that Momo pretended not to know the meaning of. Acting like she didn't understand was easy, as she simply harnessed the pre-existing confusion of _how did they got on this subject in the first place_. They've hardly ever talked about her relationship with Todoroki before.

"It's been four months since you began dating him," Jirou began to explain, flatly. "Yet you hardly ever say anything about him, which means things are either going pretty well or really badly."

"Why would they be going badly?" Momo asked, a defensive edge creeping into her voice. Not just defensive, actually – there was a part of her worried it was true.

Momo received The Look in response. Specifically, the What Did I Just Say Look, because Jirou has never been one to repeat herself and not even Momo is immune to her abrasiveness all of the time, and now it was Momo's turn to clarify:

"There's not much to talk about," she admitted. It wasn't immediately apparent, but it would be in a few more seconds that these were the wrong words to appease Jirou's cynicism. "To be honest, we go on dates maybe once a week, and Todoroki barely knows how to use his phone so we don't talk much after school either. Our academics – "

"Dump him."

Momo stopped walking like she'd hit a brick wall.

It was fine. It was fine that Todoroki didn't seem all that interested, because schoolwork was their number one priority, even if Momo sometimes wanted him to be.

A few steps ahead, Jirou stopped walking as well. The rest of the mall, the one that she'd only been to one time with Todoroki, when she wanted to try that new patisserie in the food court, continued moving. Skirts swaying, hair bouncing, and if Momo could notice all of these things platonically about other girls, why couldn't Todoroki do the same for her? How would she have to dress up to get Todoroki to notice her anyway?

If anyone, right now, took the time to really look at the situation, at her and Jirou with their locked gazes and the way neither of them is remotely close to smiling, they'd probably suspect something was wrong. It seemed obvious, right? But they didn't, and Momo was like all of them, in a sense.

"Why would I do that?"

"It doesn't sound like he's interested in you," Jirou replied. Her gaze is steady, not at all like Momo's. She didn't raise her fingers to her mouth to cover the wavering or cross her arms over her chest like a shield, because Jirou was just stating things exactly the way she saw them. "And he hasn't tried anything physical, like, at all – "

Whenever there's nothing around to twist the lid off the bottle, like Jirou was doing currently, she pretended not to notice.

Momo became defensive again, but it was a little weaker this time. "I think Todoroki might be asexual."

Just something she'd considered once or twice. Recently, after stumbling across it on the internet – she liked browsing forums, late at night. Did anyone know that? Had she ever mentioned it to Todoroki? There was something about the way people opened up online, how people could come together and share their stories and experiences anonymously, that she found incredibly appealing. Although Momo herself rarely participated.

"What does that mean?"

"It's when you're not interested in… in…" In spite of all the big words in her brain, Momo fumbled embarrassingly when it came to finding a substitute for "sex". "...in physical intimacy," came the much belated conclusion.

"Really."

The look Jirou gives her is unamused.

X

That conversation, and the one that happened afterwards, lingered in Momo's mind for a few days until she finally pulled Todoroki aside and _forced_ him to prove Jirou wrong.

Except he doesn't.

It started out like he would. Todoroki had become surprisingly adept at kissing, in an "I never knew kissing could feel this good" kind of way, considering Momo had never kissed anyone else for comparison purposes. She was fairly certain Todoroki hadn't either, although the possibility hadn't yet been ruled out.

Even now, they share mostly small, soft kisses, because it had taken Todoroki forever to figure out he could do more and Momo had hardly had the confidence to be the first to try. So it was mostly chaste, closed mouth kisses for them, even if they do ten in a row. On the rare occasion they go further, Todoroki has never seemed opposed.

Until he stopped, pulled back to collect his breath, and never started again, even when Momo prompted him to. In a way, Momo was lucky. Not all boys are like Mineta, or even Kaminari and Sero, who may not be harassers but still wouldn't pass up opportunities to do more. She didn't have to worry about that kind of pressure at all.

There was a different kind of pressure, pooling up in her abdomen, warm and kind of like having to pee, that was currently bothering her. Todoroki pulled back, so Momo did too, admiring the way Todoroki's bottom lip was wet and kind of shiny, all while feeling guilty that he might not be enjoying it the same way.

"Are you feeling all right?" Momo asked, poking his hand.

Todoroki shuffled his legs in response, putting another inch, inch and a half, between them. They were in Momo's bedroom and while she should've been able to take that as affirmation, that Todoroki was willing to sneak in to see her, it was almost impossible. Not while he was fixated on a spot on the ground near his shoe and completely not responding, and not when such a reaction was completely normal, every time they were together.

What if she'd been wrong about Todoroki's sexuality – what if his lack of interest stemmed from abuse? Momo didn't know how to fix that. She couldn't just create a thing that would make it better. If anything, she was probably making it worse.

On a less terrifying note, what if Jirou was right and it was because Todoroki just didn't _like_ her? Momo had felt like she'd been taking a gigantic risk when she'd confessed to Todoroki, terrified in a completely different way than fighting villains was terrifying, even though only one of those things was life threatening. But it might not have mattered at all to Todoroki. He might have said "yes" just because it was one of those things teenagers in their class sometimes did. Agreeing to date someone just so they could say they were dating someone.

Maybe Jirou was right.

Maybe there was a reason Todoroki wasn't willing to go any further. Maybe that reason had something to do with her or maybe it didn't, but – maybe Momo was right and maybe Jirou was right, and either way they weren't all that good for each other.

"I'm fine," Todoroki replied, with a puff of air.

Momo wiggled her way closer again, back to pressing into Todoroki's side and letting their knees bump together. Close enough to feel the muscles in his leg tense, and then relax, and understand there's not any underlying reason behind it.

He's not turned on just from kissing. That's what she'd meant.

She progressed to tracing the bones in his hand, which had moved to his thigh to accommodate the shortage of space between them, dancing over the top of his skin with her fingertip. Todoroki didn't look up for that either.

_How much does Todoroki like me,_ Momo wondered in her head.

"Do you think we should break up?" she wondered out loud.

That is what finally caught Todoroki's attention. His head snapped up, jaw hanging open. His eyes, which Momo cautiously avoided, were wide with surprise.

"I'm fine," he repeated, like repeating it would make it truer.

There was an unusual strain in his voice that Momo cautiously chose not to read into, and she likewise pretended the surrounding air hadn't just dropped in temperature by several degrees. Her hand came to a rest atop Todoroki's, the energy, the effort, sapped right out of her movements.

She'd spent all night steeling for this, had been unable to concentrate during class all day. If Todoroki knew, surely he'd be disappointed in her – but maybe that was all she should expect. He was never going to be disappointed if she forgot to text him at night, or if she didn't let him kiss her at the end of a date.

Or more.

Really, it wasn't good for either of them with the way things were going.

"Then how come you never… like the other boys?"

Surprisingly, Todoroki understood without elaboration. "I don't know. Do you want me to?"

"I wanted to. N-not immediately. Some day."

X

"Oh, how I wish I could be that innocent," Jirou had replied, with a small, derisive snort that hurt Momo more than she let on. It would have hurt less if Jirou hadn't been her friend. "Boys can't be asexual."

**I'm a bitter person, so I don't always like to write things that wrap up nicely.**


End file.
